This year has seen a string of murderers convicted and locked up for appalling and sickening crimes. Among the most high-profle of these was Ali Harbi Ali, who was given a whole life order for the terror-related murder of MP Sir David Amess.
Just days before Christmas quadruple killer Damien Bendall was sentenced to a whole life term for murdering his pregnant partner Terri Harris, her two children Lacey and John Paul Bennett and Lacey’s friend Connie Gent. Bendall also raped Lacey as she lay dying.
In Scotland, the family of Renee MacRae and her three-year-old son finally saw someone jailed for their murders. Their bodies have never been found since their disappearance more than four decades ago, and the case was one of the longest running missing persons inquiries in the country. William MacDowell, 81, was handed a life sentence after being found guilty of the murders.
The case of five-year-old Logan Mwangi, who was found dead in a river in Bridgend, Wales, shocked the whole nation. It transpired that Logan was the victim of a campaign of abuse. His mother Angharad Williamson, her partner John Cole, and Cole’s stepson - who was only 13 years old at the time of Logan’s death, were all locked up after being found guilty of murder.
Here are 20 of the most notorious criminals who faced justice this year.
In Scotland, the family of Renee MacRae and her three-year-old son finally saw someone jailed for their murders. Their bodies have never been found since their disappearance more than four decades ago, and the case was one of the longest running missing persons inquiries in the country. William MacDowell, 81, was handed a life sentence after being found guilty of the murders.
9. Angharad Williamson
Angharad Williamson was told she would serve a minimum of 28 years for her son’s murder.
In the months and weeks leading up to his death, Logan had been “dehumanised” by his family, prosecutors said during the trio’s trial.
Logan’s stammer is said to have worsened, becoming particularly bad around Cole. He wet himself more frequently and began self-harming.
Mulligan carried out the fatal assault on Logan with his stepfathe in the flat where they lived, while Williamson stood by and “did nothing”.
10. Jemma Mitchell
Self-styled healer Jemma Mitchell was told in October she will serve at least 34 years in jail for killing 67-year-old Mee Kuen Chong at her London home in June 2021. Two weeks after the murder, she drove more than 200 miles to the seaside town of Salcombe in Devon where she left her decapitated and badly decomposed body in woods.
The prosecution claimed 38-year-old Mitchell had planned to murder her and fake her will to inherit the bulk of her estate worth more than £700,000.
She came up with the plan after Ms Chong, who was known as Deborah, backed out of giving her £200,000 to pay for repairs to Mitchell’s £4 million dilapidated family home.
After the victim’s lodger reported her missing, Mitchell claimed she had gone to visit family friends.
In reality, Mitchell had decapitated her and stored her remains in the garden of the house she shared with her retired mother.
11. Ali Harbi Ali.
Ali Harbi Ali stabbed Conservative MP Sir David Amess 21 times after attending an appointment at a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, on 15 October 2021.
He was convicted in April of one count of murder, and one count of preparing terrorist acts and was given a whole life order. The IS fanatic was described by the sentencing judge as having shown “no remorse or shame for what he has done – quite the reverse.” Ali told the trial he had no regrets about the murder, defending his actions by saying Sir David deserved to die because he had voted in Parliament for air strikes on Syria in 2014 and 2015.
The court heard how London-born Ali had become self-radicalised in 2014, going on to drop out of university and abandoning his ambitions for a career in medicine.
Ali, who came from an influential Somali family and said he had a childhood “full of love and care”, considered travelling to Syria to fight but by 2019 opted for an attack in Britain.
12. William MacDowell.
The investigation into the disappearance of Renee MacRae and her son Andrew, 3, spanned decades.
The pair of Inverness, had not been seen since 12 November, 1976, and police have never found their bodies. William MacDowell, 81, was convicted of their murders earlier this year and was sentenced to life with a minimum of 30 years.
The disappearance of Renee and Andrew was one of the longest unsolved murder cases in Scottish criminal history.
MacDowell and Renee – a mother-of-two who was separated from her husband – had been having an affair for more than four years when she vanished. MacDowell was the father of Renee’s son Andrew.
He had denied having anything to do with their disappearance.
However, the court heard that MacDowell killed or abducted them in a layby on the A9 near Dalmagarry, south of Inverness, on November 12, 1976.